


Two, Four, Six

by lol-phan-af (lol_phan_af)



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crushes, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, OT6, Polyamory, Strangers to Lovers, it's a fucking ot6 y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 01:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12200955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lol_phan_af/pseuds/lol-phan-af
Summary: As Hercules watched Alexander Hamilton, writing powerhouse and sole owner of the rustiest "working" bicycle Hercules had ever seen, eat an entire apple pie singlehandedly without even stopping to make conversation or breathe even once, his first thought wasn't"why am I still friends with you."It should have been, but it wasn't. Instead, the only sentence the man could think of is,"if I wasn't in love with you before, I am now."The second one that comes to mind happened to be,"I am so not fucking paying for this apple pie if he's going to make me look at what he's doing to it."





	Two, Four, Six

As Hercules watched Alexander Hamilton, writing powerhouse and sole owner of the rustiest "working" bicycle Hercules had ever seen, eat an entire apple pie singlehandedly without even stopping to make conversation or _breathe_ even once, his first thought wasn't _"why am I still friends with you_ . _"_ It should have been, but it wasn't. Instead, the only sentence the man could think of is, _"if I wasn't in love with you before, I am now_ . _"_  
  
The second one that comes to mind happened to be, _"I am so not fucking paying for this apple pie if he's going to make me look at what he's doing to it."_  
  
Later, as Hercules walked Alex back to their apartment and he listened to Alex ramble on about how pretty the lights were even at night, Hercules supposed this would probably always happen. Alexander had his own magnetic field, and he drew everything possible towards him whether people were willing to accept it or not. Hercules was one of the few who did, let Alexander draw him in and keep him there, in the permanent suspension of getting closer but still being held at arm's length.  
  
"What're you staring at?" Alex asked, eyes squinted, peering up over the rim of his glasses. They were too big and round to fit his face, made him look somewhere between twelve and ninety at the same time. He was wearing Hercules' sweatshirt.  
  
In response to Alex's question, there were a million things Hercules could have said. _Nothing, I just love you a lot_ , _the way your eyes look like crescent moons when you smile_ , _the way you look in my clothes._ He could've told him that his hair changed color with every different color restaurant sign they passed, that every time he laughed his voice echoed for miles and Hercules could feel it vibrate in his bones.  
  
"Do you always inhale apple pies like that or do you just want _me_ to suffer personally?"  
  
Fucking. Idiot.  
  
Alex smiled, all white teeth and amusement coloring dark brown eyes, before feigning offense and saying, "I'm appalled you would ever even _consider_ my apple pie eating to be anything less than an artistic performance. I made John cry once by eating a blueberry pie in one sitting."  
  
"You made John cry because you bet him and he had to give you three hundred dollars."  
  
Alex smirked and kept on walking. Hercules was so fucked.  
  
\---  
  
Four in the morning and four months into Hercules dealing with his overabundance of love for Alex, the two of them sat in the living room of their small and kind of shitty apartment, appreciative that John and Lafayette went out for the night and left them in humble silence.  
  
Alex looked over at him. "Got any aces?"  
  
"Unless John has come home early, no."  
  
Alex groaned and leaned over to pick up another card from the stack on their coffee table, adding to the growing collection in his tiny hand. Hercules glanced over at his cards, tucked under a fold in the sweater he was knitting for John.  
  
"Fives?"  
  
"If you're not going to follow the dialogue of the game properly," Alex told him, "what is the even point of playing?"  
  
He sighed. "My dearest Alexander, my best friend and the bane of my existence, do you have any cards in the fives genre of this fucking deck of bullshit cards?"  
  
"Go fish."  
  
If Hercules didn't love him so fucking much, he would've killed him.  
  
\---  
  
There were some things in Hercules' life that were certain to cause an inordinate amount of panic. Driving on icy roads, deadlines, his love for Alexander, the journal he keeps specifically to document his love for Alexander that he kept tucked under his mattress, and getting blackout drunk, to name a few.  
  
So when he woke one morning on a freezing cold day in October, with Alexander naked tucked under his arm and no memory of what happened after he did shots with John the night previous, it felt like he was driving on an ice freeway one hour late to his own death while Alex sat in the back seat and recited paragraphs about the radiance of his own smile straight from the notebook Hercules bought for six dollars off of Amazon. It was a harrowing experience and he needed a stress ball and a nap to even attempt to survive it.  
  
Another thing that did nothing to ease his fear was Lafayette, standing in the center of Alex's room, staring at them. They had a glass of water in their hand and a face that _screams, "I never expected this,"_ and Hercules wanted to take the water from them and drown himself with it. It was over, he had a good run.  
  
"I'm just going to leave this here," Lafayette whispered, putting the glass on the nightstand and rushing out of the room. If Hercules heard correctly, he could've sworn Lafayette started crying once the door clicked shut, but it was something he couldn't deal with in that moment.  
  
Alex shot up like a bottle rocket, mind running a million miles a minute in a body that couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded.  
  
"What time is it? How long have I been asleep? Why are _you here_ ?"  
  
Hercules didn't have an answer to even one of those questions.  
  
"Don't you remember anything from last night?"  
  
" _Do you_ ?" Alex asked, pulling even more of his sheets around him. His hair fell across his shoulders and his collarbones, and now wasn't even within the _realm_ of the right time, but he was stunning. He had a beauty mark on his right cheekbone, something always hidden by his glasses that Hercules only noticed now, and he was blushing all the way to the tips of his ears.  
  
"No, no I don't."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Do you have any idea if we-?"  
  
Alex shifted, from where he knelt on the bed. "Oh, we definitely did."  
  
"Right," Hercules mumbled, and silence fell over the room again. Hercules could hear a pin and his heart drop, but one had much more impact than the other.  
  
"Y'know," Alex sighed, "I'm actually really pissed off that I've loved you for two years now and the first time we fuck I don't even remember it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Out of everything that could've happened last night, I could've _died_ last night and been chill with it, but I get you, one of the most beautiful people on earth, and my bullshit body can't even get it together long enough to _remember it?_ Is god kidding?"  
  
"You think I'm one of the most beautiful people on earth?"  
  
Alex stared him dead in the eyes, impressive considering he was one half step away from legally blind and didn't have his glasses on. Without announcement or warning, he climbed on Hercules' lap and kissed him, humming in appreciation when Hercules placed his hands on his back and returned the kiss with as much energy as he could muster.  
  
They didn't end up leaving the bed until around noon, and Lafayette couldn't look either of them in the eye. They were still crying.  
  
\---  
  
In the six months that they'd been dating, Alex gained a considerable amount of information on Hercules. Hercules was deeply unsettled by this. He trusted Alexander, of course, but did he need to know about the one time he ate a bowl of cereal with water because they were out of milk? Or that he once lived off nothing but Target popcorn for three days? No. And yet, every time they ate breakfast, Alex would give him a look over his frosted flakes and Hercules would sigh, his soul leaving his body for just a moment before they continued like nothing happened.  
  
April crept up on them before they realized, the months passing by too fast. Winter barely existed, and now it felt like summer when it was barely spring.  
  
"Climate change," Alex explained, leaning against Hercules' chest. He held a strawberry behind him, trying to find Hercules' mouth as he kept reading his book, obviously putting more effort into the task that did not involve precision, judging by the fact that Hercules had to avoid getting poked in the eye with a _fruit_ . Hercules rolled his eyes, kissing his neck before taking the strawberry from his hand and eating it himself. This boy, he swore to god.  
  
It was one of the days where none of them had any plans, so they packed up Lafayette's car and drove to the outskirts of the city, where nobody could bother them and they could chill the fuck out. It was nice to be together, all four of them like this, with no obligations or places to be.  
  
Hercules looked up at the sound of Lafayette laughing, the warm breeze blowing the light fabric of their dress. They held their arms out, letting the sun hit their skin, smiling bright enough to blind him. Hercules just stared, chin resting on Alex's shoulders, as Lafayette started to move aimlessly in circles, pulling John up from the ground and spinning him around. John laughed with them, but only halfheartedly, caught up in the brilliance that was Lafayette and finding no room for anything in his heart but awe.  
  
"I hope it doesn't rain later," Lafayette said. They reached  for butterfly clip holding John's hair up and took it out, leaving his curls to sway as they did. He seemed brighter, the emerald eyes standing out more than before, freckles contrasting his skin more drastically than the days previous. They were both beautiful, and Hercules really needed to start getting it the fuck together and figure out his feelings before it hit him like this, like it always did.  
  
Alex leaned back and kissed his jaw. "You're staring, love."  
  
"Am not," Hercules grumbled, crossing his legs so Alex could sit in his lap.  
  
"Whatever you say." He got comfortable and went back to leaning against Hercules' chest before turning the page and continuing.  
  
He kissed behind Alex's ear, caught Lafayette's eye as he did. They stopped, if only for a moment, stumbled for a second that not even John caught, before looking back to John and twirling him under their arm, cherry colored lips stretching into a smile that didn't quite meet their eyes.  
  
Hercules wondered what it would be like to kiss them.  
  
\---  
  
"Did you know you loved Alex before you got together?"  
  
Hercules felt the stillness of the night settle into his bones, TV turned down low, cars speeding by floors below them on the highway they lived on. They pushed the coffee table out of the way so they could lay on the floor, not trying to sleep, not fighting to stay awake either. Alex and Lafayette both went to bed, Alex kissing Hercules goodnight and Lafayette staring at all of them before sighing and trudging to their room.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You started dating Alex because you got drunk and slept together. Did you know that you loved him before that?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
John rolled on his side, and Hercules wanted to warn him that his back would hurt tomorrow morning like it always did when he did this, but something about the way John stared at him shut Hercules right the fuck up. They'd been friends for years, and it was only now that Hercules could see the brown specks in John's eyes, glimmering as they reflected the lights from the skyscraper across from them. They were closer than he thought they were, and Hercules could feel the heat radiating off of him.  
  
"I was just," he whispered, swallowing, "wondering."  
  
"I, uh, I watched him eat a whole apple pie, like, five months before we got together, and that's when I realized I was in love with him."  
  
John furrowed his eyebrows. They both kept leaning in. "Alex doing the apple pie thing is what made you realize you were in love with him? Are you kidding?"  
  
"I couldn't kid about that. If you would've given me more time to answer, I probably would've lied so you wouldn't know that about me." Hercules could feel John breathing and his eyelashes on his own cheeks.  
  
John laughed as his eyes fluttered shut, and that's when Lafayette stumbled in, half asleep footsteps padding against the floor and breaking them apart, leaving John bright red and Hercules struggling to collect his thoughts.  
  
"I'm gonna go to bed," John muttered, getting up and rushing off to his room. Lafayette got a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water from the tap.  
  
"Did I interrupt something?" They asked. Hercules winced at their volume and stood up to face them.  
  
"No. We were just laying here."  
  
"Okay, just making sure." Hercules nodded and moved to go in the hallway. "If you were doing something, though, and Alex didn't know about it, I wouldn't keep your secret. I'm not that kind of person, Hercules."  
  
"I know."  
  
Lafayette studied him for another moment. "Good. Goodnight, Hercules."  
  
"Night, Lafayette."  
  
Hercules went to his own bedroom instead of Alex's, and didn't sleep for a second. The absence of Alex and presence of his conflicting and growing feelings for Lafayette and John made a thunderstorm in his brain that wouldn't clear, and as sunrise came and Alex trudged in with it to complain about Hercules not sleeping next to him, he realized he had to do _something_ about it before he exploded.  
  
\---  
  
"Would you _care_ if I went over and made out with that guy?"  
  
Hercules choked on whatever he was drinking, glancing down at Alex's glitter covered face sitting in the stool next to him and then over to a man he didn't know get twirled around by another man he wasn't familiar with. Deep down, no, he didn't care. In fact, it answered a lot of questions and made a lot of Hercules' nerves settle, but that was about two people they've known for years, and this was two people they didn't know at all.  
  
"I have so many questions for that sentence alone."  
  
"Also, maybe, the person he's dancing with." Alex smiled at them both, Hercules noticed they didn't seem to hate it. Who would, honestly, when Alex looked like that?  
  
Alex put his hands on Hercules' shoulders, bringing him back to reality. "You can say no. I love you, and only you, and I respect your decision no matter what."  
  
"I'm wondering, is that something you'd be okay with? Dating people outside of our relationship?"  
  
He didn't have to guess if Alex understood what he meant, he saw the realization in his eyes the moment it appeared. Hercules felt his own heart pounding in his chest.  
  
"Is this about Lafayette and John?"  
  
All at once, the world slipped from him. The music became a deafening silence, the floor fell from underneath him and Alex's hands were no longer hands, just weights, pushing him down into the ground from where he'd never return. Everything around them, the people, the bar, the drinks, were far away, but the walls slanted towards him on the verge of collapse.  
  
"I, I, uh-"  
  
"I love them too, Hercules. Or, at least, I think I do. I'm calling them crushes right now, I don't think loving them is something I'm ready for," he mumbled, and Hercules kissed his forehead.  
  
"Those guys are still looking at you," Hercules whispered, and Alex _lit up_ . He turned back to them, hair swaying in the pretty way that made Hercules swoon. He really wanted to kiss him.  
  
"Oh, they're looking at both of us now, honey. I think they have more planned than I originally thought."  
  
Hercules didn't understand eye contact flirting, but as Alex walked him over to them he supposed he didn't really have to.  
  
Their names were James and Thomas, and Hercules tried not to like them as much as he did.  
  
\---  
  
Tuesday nights were, as universally accepted, not supposed to be exciting. They were supposed to be Hercules’ night to wish the weekend was here and watch Alex while he read on the couch and he pretended to be knitting. Tuesdays were _dedicated_ to that, it was their routine, but as Hercules stepped into Alex's bedroom after his shower and found him pacing, running his hands through his hair like he was searching for something in it, he imagined this Tuesday wasn't the ones they'd grown accustomed to.  
  
"What's wrong?" Hercules dropped the towel he used on his hair into Alex's clothes hamper before sitting at the foot of his bed, flinching as Alex whipped around to face him, eyes wild. If his shoulders weren't tense enough to be their own mountain range, Hercules would kiss him.  
  
"Remember that couple from that bar I dragged you to last week? How we got so drunk we went home with them but we were too drunk to do anything so all of us passed on their living room floor and we went out for breakfast with them? The one you drew sketches of in your journal?"  
  
"I regret giving you the key to that journal, but yes I do remember them."  
  
Alex stood in between Hercules' legs as best he could with the towel still in the way, leaning his forehead on Hercules'. His hands were soft as they cradled his jaw, thumbs grazing over the sharp corners Hercules refused to admit were ticklish. Hercules reached up to kiss him but couldn't reach, delighted when Alex closed the distance between them. Hercules pulled Alex closer until he knelt on the bed and sat on his lap, his warm hands contrasting the chill of Hercules' bare shoulders.  
  
Hercules pulled away. "Why, what about them?"  
  
Alex sighed as Hercules moved down to kiss his neck, hand coming up to the crown of his head and leaning towards him. "They asked us to go on a date with them on Friday, and I really want to go, but we have _an attraction_ to both of our roommates, and I don't know what to do." He kissed Hercules again. "And the journal is very cute, I'm glad you trusted me enough to give me a key in the first place."  
  
"They're both really pretty, they deserve to have someone draw them."  
  
"I agree, but what do we do? I don't want to lose John and Lafayette, but I don't want to close the door on something that could be amazing _just_ because I'm scared to lose John and Lafayette."  
  
Hercules kissed his collarbone. "I think we should go on the date, but explain that we do have a thing going on with Lafayette and John, even if we can't define it yet. Then we explain it to Lafayette and John, and see what happens from there. Does that, is that okay?"  
  
Alex nodded, kissing him. "What would I do without you?"  
  
Hercules flipped them over so Alex was on his back higher up on the mattress and Hercules hovered over him. Alex smiled up at him. Hercules kissed the beauty mark on his cheekbone, knocking his glasses slightly crooked.  
  
"Probably something far less impressive."  
  
\---  
  
"You look beautiful!" Alex squeaked as Hercules came out of his bedroom, fiddling with the rolled up cuffs of his shirt sleeves. Alex had his hair tied up, his work suit that he saved for special occasions making him look positively gorgeous, if Hercules was honest. His tie hung undone around his neck as he met Hercules halfway in their living room to kiss him. Lafayette and John, sitting on the couch in front of them, pretended they weren't staring.  
  
"Thank you," Hercules muttered. Without Alex asking, he started to tie his tie, trying not to blush as Alex looked up at him with way more love than Hercules could ever handle. "Love you."  
  
"I love you too."  
  
"So, where are you two going?" John asked, trying to sound casual but it just came out angry. Lafayette kicked him hard enough he almost fell off the couch.  
  
Alex answered for them, not taking his eyes off Hercules. "We have a date tonight."  
  
It wasn't like Alex to say things without thinking, and if Hercules didn't know that, if he didn't know Alex as much as he liked to say he did, he might've taken a moment to comment on his wording. _We have a date tonight_ . The implied _with James and Thomas_ hung in the air, not necessary to add but he _felt_ like it was. He didn't like lying to them, but he knew they had to, at least for now.  
  
Hercules saw their eyes lock as Alex spoke, waiting for the ending of the sentence that didn't come. Lafayette's mouth opened and closed like a fish, grasping at words they couldn't say, grasping at words Alex _didn't say_ . Hercules stood there, frozen, unable to do anything else but retrain his eyes to focus on Alex's tie. Dark black silk. Hercules got this for him for Christmas after Alex told him he didn't have any good ties. God, he loved Alex.  
  
"Oh, have fun," Lafayette finally choked. Hercules couldn't get his hands to move. Alex was still staring at him. Gently, he took Hercules' hands off of his tie and did it himself, intertwining their fingers once he was done. Alex still stared at him like he was the world, and Hercules did not deserve him.  
  
John and Lafayette both left the room, closing John's door behind them. Alex glanced down the hallway, facade slipping for a second, worried look in his eyes. Hercules understood his fear, he matched it, and if he knew what he could do to stop Alex from feeling like this, he would. He would go to the ends of the earth to try and help Alex.  
  
"I feel like I'm cheating on them," Hercules whispered. He wished he picked something, anything, else to say. Alex looked back to him, stars in his eyes again, making Hercules melt into a puddle right there in the living room,  
  
Alex stood on his toes and kissed him. His mouth tasted like dental floss and peppermints, and Hercules let it smother him until Alex's feet started to cramp and he had to get down. Kissing him was fucking _therapeutic_ , Hercules felt his nerves calm down instantly.  
  
"I know you do. So do I, but this might be the only way we get to keep all of them, and I really _really_ want to keep all of them." Alex paused. "If you're not okay with going on this date, though, we can cancel. I don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with."  
  
Hercules shook his head. "No, I want to go, I just wish we didn't have to hide it."  
  
Before Alex could respond, Thomas texted Alex and said they were in front of the building. Hercules nodded and off they went, down the stairs to people they wanted to love, away from people they already did.  
  
\---  
  
The four of them fit together like puzzle pieces, and nobody was more shocked to figure this out than Hercules.  
  
He started noticing little things. Thomas and Alex both had similar sleep schedules, which is to say they rarely slept at all. The amount of times Hercules woke up to find Alex sitting on the floor of their bedroom talking on the phone with Thomas about one thing or another grew intangible the longer they dated, and the amount of times Hercules was two seconds away from sleep and saw James said goodnight to him because _he_ was going to bed then too was almost the same amount.  
  
Hercules liked that, like having someone who wouldn't _tease_ him for falling asleep at seven o'clock, but also someone to stay with Alexander when his mind wouldn't sleep with him.  
  
Where their relationship with Lafayette and John had jagged edges, their relationship with Thomas and James laid flat. One was not to compensate for the other, they didn't do this as a consolation to get over what might or might not have been. They did this because when Thomas looked at him with wide eyes the morning he woke up on his and James' living room floor and breathed out a confused, " _You're even more beautiful when I'm sober,_ " before turning bright red and hiding his face in his hands, Hercules felt his heart flutter in a way that wasn't easy to swallow.  
  
Thomas and James, Hercules thought, were people he didn't know he was looking for. Dating them felt like falling in love with Alex in hyperspeed, like four thousand apple pies and Alex grinning at him from across a diner table. It felt like midnight with John on their living room floor and an endless field and Lafayette's yellow dress flowing in the wind.  
  
He didn't know how to _begin_ to explain that feeling to them.  
  
\---

"You're so warm," Thomas said, nuzzling into Hercules' neck. Hercules laughed and pulled him closer, kissing his forehead as Thomas pulled the huge throw blanket they huddled under further up over his shoulders. He yelped as someone got attacked on screen, but didn't look away.  
  
Thomas and Hercules both had a rapt fascination with Shark Week, which Alex and James understood but didn't agree with. James didn't like it because he thought it criminalized sharks and Alex just didn't like the ocean, or most bodies of water, so he opted out of things that would most likely increase his fear. The time it was on they usually spent next to them, watching anything else but the TV.  
  
"That's disgusting," Alex remarked, watching as the water on screen turned red and the narrator described in _hideous_ detail what happened to the girl who swam idly by only moments before. That poor, poor girl.  
  
"Why don't you go to our room, then?" Thomas asked, leaning over and lying on top of them.  
  
James groaned but made no move to stop, kissing Alex's shoulder before answering, "We like being down here with you, we just don't like whatever the fuck that is." He gestured over the laptop screen to the scene playing in front of them.  
  
"I love you," he kissed James' cheek, not lifting his lips off his skin before adding, "all. I love you all. A lot, the four of you." He cleared his throat and sat up.  
  
Two months, a multitude of sleepovers, and seven dates. Hercules couldn't breathe. They still didn't talk to Lafayette and John, and now that Thomas told them he loved them it became clear that they needed to. _Fuck_ .  
  
"Love you too," Alex answered, as easy as breathing, and then froze. The sound of the television and Princess and the Frog filled the room.  
  
James sat up, untangling himself from Alex. "Did you mean that?"  
  
"I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it." Alex set the laptop on the coffee table. Hercules paused the show they were watching as a fisherman talked about something far less important than what they had to talk about now.  
  
"It's kind of soon, don't you think?" James muttered, and Alex and Thomas nodded. Hercules crawled on the couch to sit behind Thomas.  
  
"It is, but it doesn't stop me from loving you. I do love all of you."  
  
"Same," Thomas whispered.  
  
Hercules swallowed. "Me too."  
  
James glanced over to Alex before grabbing his hand, like a weight anchoring him to the earth. "I love you too."  
  
Alex and Hercules looked at each other over their heads.  
  
\---  
  
The first thing Hercules noticed was, surprisingly, _not_ the strange man standing in their kitchen shirtless sipping a cup of water. It was instead the fact that Lafayette's shirt laid on the floor of their living room. It was their favorite shirt, but it was a bitch to get wrinkles out of, so the fact that it was just _here_ , thrown haphazardly on the floor like it didn't matter, was wrong. Something was wrong.  
  
"You really need to stop sprinting up the stairs," Alex panted, "I'm like three feet tall, by the time you're up here I'm-"  
  
Alex stopped as he saw the man standing in their kitchen, bringing Hercules' attention to him for the first time. He was somewhere in between John and Lafayette in terms of height, his jaw hard set in its place, carving a permanent scowl into his face. He seemed angry, as if them coming home personally upset him.  
  
"Are, are we in the right apartment?" Alex walked in next to him, looking around to double check if they were in the right place. "Lafayette's shirt."  
  
Lafayette came out of John's bedroom, in nothing but their underwear, head in their hands, eyes wide.  
  
"We did not just do that, this isn't happening. Maybe it's not real! Maybe I'l go into the kitchen and nobody will be there!" They stopped talking when they noticed Hercules and Alex, eyes bulging out of their skull. Alex sniffed beside Hercules as tears pooled in his eyes, putting the pieces together.  
  
Mysterious half naked stranger, Lafayette's shirt, John's bedroom. Hercules wanted to curse himself for not saying something to them sooner.  
  
For a long time, nobody spoke. Alex cried like he didn't realize he was doing it, face blank as he stared at Lafayette, frozen in place. Lafayette stumbled backward and Hercules couldn't move at all. The man in their kitchen darted back and forth between the three of them, sipping from his coffee mug.  
  
Alex didn't stay and wait for anyone to break the silence, took initiative by slamming the door behind him as he stormed out. It wasn't an angry departure, Hercules knew that, but the way Lafayette winced showed that they didn't. Hercules could still feel the warmth of Alex at his side, like everything stopped and continued at once around him.  
  
"Is he okay?" Lafayette asked, not meeting Hercules' eyes. The half naked man in their kitchen glared at him.  
  
"Well, no. We just came from our boyfriends' apartment to tell you that, one, we have two boyfriends that we want you to know about, and two, we're kind of, sort of, completely in love with you, and we want to date you and John in _addition_ to our other boyfriends, but I don't, you lost me here. You lost _us_ here, really, and I would stay to ask, but I have to go find Alex. He's probably in the park two blocks from here, or on the way there, so if you want to come find us, that's where we'll be."  
  
He didn't wait for Lafayette to say anything, following Alex's path and rushing to the staircase, down the steps and in the direction of the park Alex loved so much. Many of their dates ended and began in that park, making it significant for the both of them, and _oh_ .  
  
_That's what Alex was doing_ .  
  
\---  
  
Alex's favorite park, filled with bright green trees that always managed to have leaves grown in perfect circles, perfect cement pathways and cute little benches that line them. Tall iron streetlamps illuminate the paths, turning the duck pond into a glimmering midnight and the hidden corners where couples made out behind the trees shadowed escapes. Hercules couldn't count on both hands how many times either him or Alex pushed each other against the bark of one of those trees.  
  
"Hercules," Alex sobbed, collapsing into his arms the second Hercules got close enough.  
  
"I know, love." He ran his fingers through Alex's hair, the other resting on his neck. Alex wound his arms around Hercules' waist, balling the light fabric of Hercules' shirt in his hands.  
  
"I'm so sorry, I'm sorry that I got us into this and that I brought us, Thomas, and James together. I'm sorry I kept postponing telling them, I'm so sorry. You, you don't need someone who ruins everything for you, I'm so sorry. I didn't, I didn't think this would happen, I didn't-"  
  
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Alexander. Meeting Thomas and James was the most wonderful thing to ever happen to us, and it never would've happened without you. You brought us all together and I'm so grateful for them and _you_ , and for having people like all of you that love me as much you all do."  
  
"But, but-"  
  
"I know Lafayette and John slept with someone else, but so did we. Two people, actually, and we shouldn't've expected them to sit around and wait for us. It wasn't entirely your fault, you don't need to blame yourself for all of this this. I put off telling them too, and even if they don't love us, we still have people who do. Thomas and James and _me_ , I love you, and us, and how happy you make me."  
  
Alex squished Hercules' cheeks together and kissed him. "I'm so sorry, still. Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine, love. I have you to ground me if I ever worry." Alex beamed up at him, jumping to kiss him again. He pulled apart as slow has he kissed, eyes widening as they focused on something behind him. Hercules turned to follow him.  
  
His heart raced and halted at the same time as he saw Lafayette and John walking towards them.  
  
\---  
  
"This fucking _stupid_ ," Alex commented, twirling a small metal tube in between his fingers like a pen. Hercules thought it was a cigarette at first, but judging by the fact that it was _metal_ and also bright lavender, he cancelled that thought.  
  
He handed John the glass of water he asked for and set down the mug of hot chocolate on the end table. Why Alex asked for hot chocolate in the middle of August, Hercules didn't know, but at this point he loved him too much to care. Alex nodded at him to say thank you and Hercules kissed his cheek, letting them return to whatever conversation they started in his two minutes of absence.  
  
Lafayette smiled from where they were underneath him. Hercules pointed out to himself that they were always smiling with Alex around, then grinned because they were all finally together and he was so damn _happy_ , however a little worried because all of the dates were slow and steadily draining his bank account.  
  
"It is not stupid. They're supposed to make you feel _calm_ , and trust me when I say that you need it."  
  
Alex squinted at it. "Does it turn on or something or do you just go for it?"  
  
"You just go for it." Lafayette reached up to twirl a piece of John's hair, smiling when he kissed their forehead. Hercules shoved him over to get in bed, curling around him once he settled.  
  
"What's going on right now?" He asked, kissing John's shoulder.  
  
"Lafayette has these little vape things, I don't even know, they're supposed to have _essential oils_ in them or something, and Alex disagrees."  
  
Hercules could not believe. "We're fucking vaping now? That's how we spend Thursday nights?"  
  
"Apparently so, my love," Alex said, putting the pen up to his lips. Hercules had to admit the image of Alex exhaling did look pretty, watching as the vape, oh my god, curled up and faded away. Hercules chuckled as it fogged up his glasses, and though he couldn't see all of his eyes, he knew he was glaring down at Lafayette hard enough to kill them.  
  
Lafayette tapped a rhythm on Alex's thighs, seemed to know this, smug about it. "So, how do you feel? That one's supposed to make you feel calm."  
  
"I feel exactly the fucking same, this is _stupid_ . The little rhinestone on the end is pretty," he muttered before handing it back to Lafayette. They threw it in the nightstand drawer and swung Alex so they were on their sides.  
  
"I did the sleep one earlier and now I'm _exhausted_ , maybe your mind wasn't open enough to let it take effect."  
  
John snorted. "You're exhausted because it's one in the morning."  
  
Lafayette shh'd him and Hercules turned off the lamp, warm as John cuddled up to him and fell asleep.  
  
\---  
  
When Hercules and Alex suggested that Lafayette and John get to know Thomas and James, he never expected that they'd get along this _well_ . As Lafayette laughed with Thomas in his and James' kitchen trying to make pasta together, Hercules' mind wandered, and not even Alex, John, and James combined could get him out of it.  
  
Six people in one relationship was too many, right? Where would they find a bed? How many eggs would they have to make every morning? _We could push two together and I can make sheets_ , and _roughly twelve_ popped into his head as soon as the questions appeared, and if realizing things and getting immediately attached to them was going to be a thing that happened often, he might die right here on Thomas and James' comfortable sectional couch.  
  
"Hey," John whispered, poking his nose. Hercules came back to earth, feeling the gentle squeeze of James' arms around his middle and the weight of John curled up on his chest. Alex moved to the kitchen while he was daydreaming, trying to sneak bread rolls past Thomas and Lafayette, who were now reprimanding him by kissing his cheeks until he laughed so hard he couldn't breathe.  
  
Hercules kissed John's forehead. "Hello, love."  
  
"What were you thinking about?"  
  
Hercules almost got motion sickness with how fast his stomach lurched.  
  
"Nothing, I just spaced out for a bit, I think."  
  
John squinted his eyes, the look that meant _I don't believe you, but I'll accept it for now_ , followed by a _we'll talk later_ nod, and the three of them went back to watching the Harry Potter movie marathon.  
  
"Dinner's ready!" Thomas called, smacking Alex's hand away from the basket of bread with a wooden spoon.  
  
\---  
  
Snow fell gently outside as Lafayette and John skipped ahead of the rest of them inside Target, grabbing the cart and wheeling it ahead of the rest of them. Alex got down from where he rode James' back and smiled when his dry boots touched the ground.  
  
"I'm a genius," he announced. Hercules rolled his eyes, took Alex's mitten off his hand so he could intertwine their fingers.  
  
James kissed his cheek. "You're lucky I love you."  
  
"Yes, I am."  
  
When the six of them started going grocery shopping together, Hercules couldn't remember, nor could he remember when they all agreed to spend Christmas at Thomas and James' instead of going home to their families. He wasn't complaining though, Thanksgiving was chaos at home, trying to explain to his brother how yes, he was dating five people and no, they're not all dating each other. Being with all five of his partners reminded him how much he loved them, and how much love they had in return.  
  
"Do you think they're ever going to figure it out?" Alex asked him as Lafayette and Thomas stood pressed together arm to arm, discussing sauce recipes and assigning roles to who would make each type of cookie. James and John were in another aisle, loading up on cinnamon rolls that one of them would end up making.  
  
"I think, that the day you and I aren't on the same page is a day that's never coming."  
  
"True, but we have been together a year and a half, and we were best friends before that. We know each other."  
  
"I love you."  
  
"Love you too."  
  
Hercules kissed Alex's temple. "To answer your question, I do think they'll figure it out, but not without our help."  
  
\---  
  
Hercules loved clichés. He loved kisses in the rain, giving it all up for the person you love, the one where the person is going on a plane to somewhere else but then it turns out that, _oh my god_ , they actually didn't get on the plane, and there's a rounding shot of them running into each other's arms and some cheesy one liner that makes Hercules cry. Alex called him _sappy_ , Hercules argued that it was _romantic_ .  
  
And so, in an attempt to get the four people they loved most in the world to realize what was _right in front of them_ , Hercules came to Thomas and James' apartment on Christmas Eve with mistletoe tucked in his coat pocket and a piece of yarn to hold above them. He used it to greet James, to avoid it falling out and embarrassing himself, but also because he really loved James, and what was Christmas without love?  
  
"You two are gross," Alex muttered, moving Hercules out of the way to kiss James the same way, then move on to Thomas, who stopped stirring the pasta sauce to kiss back. Hercules rolled his eyes.  
  
"Where did you even get that?" John asked, hopping on the breakfast bar stool and leaning on the counter. Thomas and James grinned at him and he slowly turned away from them, blush creeping up his cheeks all the way down to the back of his neck.  
  
"Christmas store on Seventh," Hercules replied, kissing him quick before going to collapse on the couch.  
  
As late afternoon slipped into evening, Hercules received and gave at least one kiss to each of his significant others under the guise of mistletoe, and Alex shot daggers at him as John sat next to James on the couch, not looking at each other, making it so obvious that they _want to_ . He tossed the plant over to Alex, who immediately crawled into John's lap and held it so it was on James instead of him.  
  
John kissed Alex anyway, didn't bother to look. Hercules loved them so much, but that wasn't the point, so he cleared his throat and they broke apart.  
  
"I'm flattered, dear, but I'm not the one the mistletoe is asking you to kiss. Only if you want to, of course, and I mean that." He dropped a kiss on John's forehead.  
  
If Hercules thought he'd seen John blush before, it was _nothing_ compared to this. Tomatoes, red birthday balloons, the color of the ugly rug in the lobby of their apartment building.  
  
"O-Okay."  
  
James swallowed as he looked over at him. "You, you don't have to."  
  
Alex nodded. "You don't, and neither do you James."  
  
"I know, but I still want to."  
  
" _Well_ ." James scrunched his nose up at Alex's terrible impression of a southern accent, interrupted as John pulled James to him, jostling Alex until he fell off John and tumbled to the floor. They didn't break apart to look at him, but Alex didn't care, judging by the dazzling upside down grin he gave Hercules from the floor.  
  
"I wasn't," Thomas mumbled, loud enough for them to hear, "I wasn't expecting this to happen tonight. I thought, are we gonna talk about this?"  
  
Lafayette didn't look at him. "Do you want to talk about it? Is there something about _this_ that you think is worth having an actual discussion with all of us?"  
  
"Well, I mean, we've been thinking about it, but we didn't know how to bring it up. How do you bring up to your two boyfriends that you have a crush on both of their significant others. Who does that?"  
  
Alex got up from the floor. "Yeah, we thought it might be something like that, that's why we-" he gestured to John and James, who were still kissing on the couch, turned towards each other now so the angles wasn't as awkward. "Y'know."  
  
"Yeah, I figured." Thomas laughed, then blushed as Lafayette knocked their hip against his.  
  
"Love you!" Alex chirped. Thomas rolled his eyes, but the fondness was apparent.  
  
"I love you too."  
  
\---  
  
The six of them sat around the dinner table, so much food passed and finished they barely had room for anything else. Hercules was about to suggest they go to bed when Thomas and Lafayette set an entire line of desserts on the table in front of them, and the words disappeared from his mind as his stomach made room.  
  
"I'm going to _die here_ ," John groaned, weakly working a fork through the pumpkin pie, tears dotting his eyes. Lafayette couldn't even eat because they laughed so hard watching him try to eat this one small sliver of pie, hands shaking slightly as he made room for more. They all told John, more than once, that he could stop, but he was on his second slice despite that and Hercules prayed for his stomachache later.  
  
The world slowed down to a stop as Ale caught his eye at the other end of the table, eyes warm as the gazed at him, small grin on his face. He pushed his glasses up his nose and then looked down, making Hercules follow. He choked.  
  
Sitting in front of Alex instead of plate was one whole apple pie, untouched by any of them and unwilling to be, seeing as nobody acknowledged its existence. Alex showed James and Thomas the pie thing on their fifth date, how they managed to go on a sixth date, Hercules had no idea. Alex had the look in his eyes, like he could inhale the world and still make room for that pie.  
  
Before he could dig into it, Thomas replaced the fork in Alex's hands with a pie cutter, not letting any misunderstandings into the look he gave. Alex sighed, shaking his head to show he disapproved before slicing the pie into sixths and huffing.  
  
His eyes looked like crescent moons as he smiled at him.

**Author's Note:**

> aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
> 
> also the entire name for this ship tag is too many characters im gonna mcfricking lose it
> 
> tumblr: lol-phan-af


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